Looking to transfer? Lau knows how

By Amanda Carney
Staff writer

The sun is finally out, the weather is getting warmer, and that can only mean one thing. Summer.

But, there are some things to be accomplished before summer officially begins. For many Hutchinson Community College students that means preparing for their next journey – transferring to another college.

Many students are already stressed with finals around the corner that transferring is on the back burner. Transferring can be stressful, because potential transfers may not know where to start. Not to worry. HutchCC’s very own coordinator of advising, Christopher Lau, answered some questions that students might have.

Q: What should HutchCC students planning to transfer this fall get done now? By May? By June?

A: At this point, there are several things that a transfer student would have already completed – visiting the transfer school, applying for admission and being accepted, completing the FAFSA and any scholarship applications, etc. So, at this point, the transfer student would need to finish strong and do well on his or her classes for the remainder of this semester. After graduation, the student will want to send an official transcript with all courses completed to the transfer school through the National Student Clearinghouse.

There is a link available to do this through DragonZone. For more information, students can visit http://www.hutchcc.edu/administration/records/transcript-request.

Next, during the summer, the student may be required to attend an orientation or transition event at the university.

Q: What should students who want to transfer this fall but aren’t sure where to transfer know?

A: Get in contact with your advisor now. While it may not be too late to transfer to a university, some universities have already awarded transfer scholarships and there may not be scholarship funding available.

Q: What resources are available at HutchCC to figure out the right school to transfer to?

A: If a student is undecided, he or she can talk with his or her advisor about colleges and universities in Kansas, the difference between private and public universities, which transfer schools offer the program a student is interested in, etc.

The Student Success Center in the Parker Student Union maintains a small transfer resource area with information from various transfer schools. Finally, many colleges and universities set up tables in high-traffic buildings on campus where students can ask questions of admissions representatives.

In addition to applying, being accepted, completing your FAFSA, and keeping up your current grades there is still more to be done. Students want to make sure that school they are transferring is the right school for them. One way to do this to go on a campus visit.

Chad Steinkamp, assistant Director of Admissions at Wichita State University said, “A campus visit can be a huge determining factor on where a student goes to school. It really can make or break your decision. Also, it is a great way to get additional information about campus that you might not already know.”

Moving to a new city, or even state can be intimidating. Especially coming for a community college, moving to a state college might me a big change for some students.

“When transferring to a state college there will be a few more people around and, in your classes, compared to community college but there are also many opportunities to get involved and meet new people,” Steinkamp said. “The last two or three years of college is really the time where you make the big decisions on what your career goals are, and WSU and other state schools can help you with that.”

However, there is one last thing to consider when transferring schools, and that is how do your classes transfer? The last thing anyone wants at this point is to have paid for classes that do not transfer the way you want them to.

For those students transferring to Wichita State University, they have a new transfer portal.

“The portal is called the transfer gateway and students can get to it by going to www.wichita.edu/transfergateway,” Steinkamp said. “Transfer students can put in all their classes they have taken at Hutch CC or about to take and the gateway will show them how it will transfer to us and how many credits they have left to get their degree with us.”

Students who are unable to decided were to transfer from should explore all their options.

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